Page 76 of Game Misconduct

“Just forget I said anything,” Tanner said with an annoyed-sounding huff. “She was just … worrying or something, I don’tknow. Hey, you don’t think your dad would be weird if shit went down between us, right?”

“Uhh,” Leif said. “Weird in what way? And what kind of shit?”

“I dunno. Like … if we kept doing stuff and … fuck, I don’t know. If, like, we were trulypissedat each other again or something.”

“I’m always going to get pissed at you on the ice. You’re an annoying player,” Leif pointed out. “I’d feel like that even if Iwasin love with you.”

“Right? Exactly,” Tanner said with a laugh. “And I’m gonna call you Ice Princess and try to annoy you because that’s what I do. Although don’t even pretend you aren’t annoying out there too, dude. I still have a bruise from the knob of your stick.”

They squabbled for a few moments about who was more obnoxious—Tanner,obviously—before Tanner changed the subject. “So like, we’ll be fine, right?”

“Of course,” Leif promised.

“And your dad wouldn’t care. Papa Coach Rasmussen seems like a cool dude.”

“I don’t know that he wouldn’tcare,” Leif said. “I think he’d question my choices about sleeping with you.”

“He shouldn’t! I’m fucking hot.”

“I’m not sure that’s the part he’d be concerned with,” Leif said drily.

“He’s bi, right? Or pan? I dunno how he identifies.”

“Yeah. How didyouknow that?” Leif asked, frowning. His dad rarely spoke about the guy he’d been involved with before he’d met Leif’s mom.

“Oh, he’s talked about it a little bit,” Tanner said, sounding totally casual. “I dunno, I didn’t hear it from him myself, but he talked to Mickey and Rafe about it, I think. Something about dating a teammate back in the day or something, I can’t fucking remember the details. No idea who it was. I spent a while trying to figure it out but I was never sure if I was right.”

“Huh,” Leif said. “Yeah, he did date a teammate. Uhh, can you keep a secret?”

“Not really,” Tanner said cheerfully, like this wasn’t a terrible thing to admit about oneself.

“Uhh, well …” Leif considered his options. “Can you promise you won’t spread it around online or to anyone who would?”

“Sure, I can do that.”

“So, New York’s goalie coach, Langley Hawkins. That’s who Dad dated. They played for Boston together.”

“Woah, really?”

“Really,” Leif said.

“Holy shit. Your dad dated hisgoalie. Fuck, it’s like Jesse and Connor all over again.”

“I think that would be the other way around,” Leif pointed out. “And Dad was alternate captain at the time. But yes. Alternate captain dating his goalie. Not that it ended well for Dad and Hawke.”

“Well, they had to be closeted then, right?”

“Yeah,” Leif agreed, wincing. “Can’t imagine that.”

“No, me either. So what fucking happened?”

“I don’t know, exactly,” Leif admitted. “But they were involved when they both played for Boston and then something went sideways. Like someone in the head office got wind of it and everything blew up, I think.”

“Ooh that sucks.”

“Yeah.”

“So they just traded your dad to New York to, like, get rid of the problem?”